I spent the weekend 26th of March through to the 28th of March at the ____________ ___________ _______ Woodfordia site. There are way to many words to describe Woodfordia and I simply say experience it for yourself and you tell me how to describe it.

At the Woodford Organisers Group conference referred to as “The Big Chat” I got to:

Day 1

camp wherever I wanted to on the Woodfordia site (Woodford Folk Festival grounds)

meet my supervisor in my next role:

Sign maker for Dreaming Festival job offer

I will be making signs for the Dreaming Festival in June 11-13th. The role also involves placing the signs around the festival. The department head of Signology was happy to have me on board as I am a graphic designer and have typography, map making, computer based design (printing and laminating) and painting skills. As a true leader eager to induct an enthusastic new team member I was told about the new printer and laminator, Bubbles and Bobo respectfully; shown where the signs are stored; how to brave the cold Woodfordia climate during winter and a basic overview of operations before the festival (set up).

Welcomed to the Woodford Organisers Conference by the Queensland Folk Federation President, with whom I just met through my department head not 1 hour before he took the stage.

Alan Glover and S Sorrensen made the whole room vibrate with laughter the whole time they were on stage. I don’t remember laughing so loudly for so long in a long time.

I was oustide and “this bloke” comes over and says:
“Hey you lot, get inside now the band is about to start.
Come on get inside the band starts in five minutes.
Come on you lot, stop smoking and get inside you don’t want to miss the band”. . . .
*Chuckles to himself*
“How often does the lead singer of the band usher in the crowd?”

– John Schumann

John Schumann, Hugh McDonald and Alex Black performed some amazing music acoustically.

The group stayed up late catching up over some drinks in a relaxed setting surrounded with trees and amazing down to earth loving friendly people.

DAY 2

Breakfast.

The General Manager gave an overview of the finance for 2009-10 Woodford Folk Festival.

I learnt how the overall enterprise is structured, makes money and spends money.

The Executive Director and a Foresight Practitioner discussed the myth of the “500 Year Plan”.

We had a tea break and moved onto separate more specific workshops. There was a choice of three.

I met the Children’s Festival programmer who held a workshop called “A million ways to save a dollar”. We discussed ways that each department of the festival could save a small amount of money by being more efficient.

I stayed in the Organisers Club Bar for the Setup Department Head session and it is about the issues faced during the set up – I will be part of the set up crew and want to go into a department head position at some point in the future.

We had a lunch break.

I had a message passed onto me about where one of my favourite Woodfordians was cooking up fish he caught the day before. It was beautifully cooked. The company up at the undisclosed location was worth meeting and missing out on the Speed Meet session where we only had a few minutes to meet each other. We bonded over an hour.

The next workshop I attended was entitled “Getting involved as a new organiser – are you up for being a part of the WOG?” It was interesting how the Volunteers and Department Heads manager facilitated the start of this workshop. We sat in a circle, introduced ourselves (first name and last name) and briefly summarise our involvement in QFF so far and what we want to do now and in the future. When it got to introducing myself I said “I am Kassandra with a k.” then I am cut off and told I do not need a last name as Kassandra with a K is enough. We were told to find where we felt we belonged and be mentored by a department head and get into a key offsider position. When the department head wants to step down you are already trained for the role.

“Many hands make light work” was the motto we heard. 8 people packed sand into 1000 recycled white boxes and placed a tea light on top. This was for Earth Hour where we all ate our two-course Annual Organisers Dinner under candle light.

We all got to chill out and bond some more after a full day of workshops.

I met one of my new favourite bands: A French Butler Called Smith outside the “Duck” I explained I saw them live in Maleny and we bonded over the badness of the poster design for the event (I later remade it – Kassandra Bowers Poster Remake Design). They seemed pretty excited to hear I am a graphic designer.

The candles were lit and we were dressed to impress (dreadlocks and suits is a very good look) as we ate our delicious meal. On the table plan my name was misspelt. I got out my pen and changed it quickly while noone was looking. When everyone was sitting at the table and we were all meeting each other they all said they noticed I changed the spelling of my name.

Since I was sitting next to the Foresight Practitioner I asked about a quote I heard countless times at university: “we are training you for jobs that do not exist yet”. Basically I am trained to encounter change as an given and be adaptable to it. I now think it has to do with the transdispiclinary learning that took place at university.

John Sullivan Federal MP introduced John Schumann as the Guest Speaker at the dinner. John explained the whole story about the song “Nineteen”.

The Annual Organisers Awards took place.

A French Butler Smith took the stage, warmed up the dance floor with a tango and then had us all dancing our feet off. At the end of their set when everyone was asking for an encore I reasoned them into it by saying “but come on, the instruments are here and sound checked, the lights are going, your on stage and you have us all dancing here” we got not one but two encores – we were truely spoilt. I did not let them leave without giving them my contact card and having a much longer chat to at least one group member – the saxaphone player.

Since we would all not catch up again for about a month we all braced ourselves for a long night of just living and taking it as it happens. It somewhat drizzled on us, the circle got smaller, the bar closed and we were told not to waste all the wine (don’t let it go in the bin it was purchased for you to consume). The next thing I remembered it was 6am, the sun was appearing and there was only three of us standing. I crawled into my tent for a couple of hours of sleep.

Day Three

Most people were a little worse for wear today but we perservered.

We kickstarted the day with breakfast and a talk about the aspiration campaign.

There was a brief update about department heads.

There was a discussion about new software developed to facilitate all the issues arised during events.

We were told about the large storm approaching the site and were instructed to do the group photo and go home early if you wanted to. The group photo becomes history as it is archieved as proof that a group of people organised and ran all the festivals that QFF does – The Dreaming, The Planting and Woodford Folk Festival.

I went home after spending 20 minutes with my department head learning about the department.

It was great I can’t wait until I get to see my family at Woodfordia again soon.

The original poster annoyed me so very much as it is very poorly designed. There was no heirarchy and it appears it was more about the bands than the night itself. Some strategic repacing of the items (and using the bands actual logos not just the same type as the rest of the poster) some useful typography – balance, line spacing, size, colour for heirarchy. The word funky was vectorised from a pen-to-paper drawing. The logo for TAME was created by me on this poster it is an abbreviation of “The Art of Mother Earth”.

The original poster was folded when I recieved it so there was some careful photoshop use to disguise this and due to the scan the images are not as vibrant as the origninal but still passable. I will try to get a photo of one of the original posters from the event.